


Three hundreds sixty-seven shuriken and counting

by WickedBee



Series: Paper and Weapon [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Before Tsunade, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light Angst, Minor Character Death, Post-Chuunin Exams, aftermath of konoha crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-04 21:28:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14602080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WickedBee/pseuds/WickedBee
Summary: In the aftermath of the invasion, there are bodies in the streets and gennin are sent to recover them (burn them). Tenten prefers focus herself in collecting weapons than give much attention to the corpses.She is practical, after all.





	Three hundreds sixty-seven shuriken and counting

**Author's Note:**

> Do we see aftermath of Konoha Crush? Do we see the bodies, the lost, besides the Third Hokage? Where is the rest of the dead? Where is the rest of Team Gai's classmates? Are they dead? Are they alive? Konoha is suppost to take a heavy hit in their forces, but we just see it in Sasuke's Rescue Mission. This was going to be a Sakura-centric piece, but Tenten took it back asking these questions.
> 
>  
> 
> TW: Dead bodies and mentioned character dead

This one had seven shurikens, three kunai and some meters of ninja wire. Orange hair and no pupils. So, Yamanaka. No chuunin jacket, young and a headband. Gennin. Tenten seals the body and searches. Yamanakas are more likely working together with other clans and even if they are from Gennin Corps, they are never alone. She says that much to Sakura, which is one of her companions for today.

 

“Oh. It makes sense. What are you going to do with their weapons?”

“Use them, of course. What else would I do?” She is puzzled by the question. Why ask it? Weapons are meant for be used, except if they are decorative and even these can be wielded. She hums an old song and continues to work.

“Put them in their grave? At least this is my clan tradition. You are buried with your trade tools’ and some coins, so your soul can have a safe trip. The coins are for your soul have a secure passage through spirit realm. The tools are for you remember what you did in life. Then people are going to pray and light incense for your soul through the years so your soul gain strength and if you are lucky, you can go to Pure Lands. There, people can pray  _ to _ you, and sometimes you will concede wishes.”

“And how do you know if the person is already in the Pure Lands?” There. The head of this one is apart from their body. Four shurikens, no kunai and two explosive tags. Nice. No clan symbols, no family crest and no clear signals of belonging to one. Headband and no shoes. Un. Someone passed here before them.   
“We give them four years to do so. After it, they are for themselves. But my dad’s family has a different tradition. You have to go to sea in a boat and row until you can’t see the beach anymore. Just then, you put the naked body on water, with a flower in their mouth as offering to Shinigami. Hey, I found some senbon. Want to keep it?” The girl throws a bundle of them to her and continue to remove the wreckage from the path. “If you can spare, you put a bit of some oil in their fingers and feet before giving them to the sea. After, you are supposed to party, maybe drink and tell stories of the dead. Both ways are alright to me. Found three more bodies, see if you can identify them.” Sakura moves to the side and keep working and Tenten observes them.

“Yeah, thanks. I liked the last one. Seems pretty neat, if you ask me.” Adults, women, no scars or callus in hands, neither has headbands or some ninja related tool. No family crest either. Broken necks.  _ Ohh, some money, nice _ but the fabric of their clothes is a passable quality. The gennin must have tried to take them to somewhere safe, found some enemy ninja and all of them were killed. Bad luck. “Civilians, no identification. Call Ryota-senpai, he will burn them.”

 

Tenten doesn’t feel much seeing corpses. It is not her first time seeing one. She even produced some, when she was rescuing Neji’s cousin and in some missions before. And she doesn’t know their names, their lives or whom they are. Now they are just corpses she must collect or tell someone to burn. It easy, she knows, to do it. Tenten focus herself in their weapons or their money because that is the kind of girl she is. Practical. When everything is done, Konoha will run its ninjas ragged, no matter their rank. Civilians will try to go someplace more stable; the Kyuubi Attack and Uchiha Massacre still fresh in their memories. The price of everything will be higher and food will be scarcer. So, she collects.

 

_ (Her hands will be butterfly-light if she needs so, if the worms of famine appear in her body. Or Lee’s for that matter. Lee is an orphan like her and maybe not a ninja anymore, just if some kind of miracle happens. Sweet and youthful Lee, is going to find very hard adapt himself to new life-style. And until he can sustain himself,  _ **_she will provide_ ** _. _

_ “Vulture, vulture, vulture.” Something inside her chants and she holds it close at her heart. The chant doesn’t stop. She holds it close at her mind and it stops, just to shriek in delight. It makes a nest there and its song is beautiful. She starts humming it under her breath.) _

 

She still is numb when she hears the story about a boy exploding himself and destroying a small contingent of enemy ninja  **_and_ ** _ a street, _ giving distraction enough for his teammates escape.  _ Kirito-kun _ , something in her stirs. Kirito-kun always loved explosions, and there must be some poetry or metaphor there, but she doesn’t care. Tenten just remembers a boy with a fondness for bombs and liked to cause mayhem in class and gave the best suggestions about how to make her explosions bigger. She passes through the local and promise light some incense for him later. He believed in the fire deities, like most of the country, and their funeral rites asked for fire or smoke and so she will provide, maybe just not the fire (the explosion must suffice.) She will raid his apartment later too, because there is no sense in letting things there alone for rot. Maybe, she will contact his teammates, if their injuries didn’t kill them. 

 

_ (She has one hundred sixty-eight shuriken, thirty-seven kunai, nearly two hundred senbon, fifty-two meters of ninja wire, ten explosive tags, two smoke bombs and a bo staff. She has four new pairs of shoes, more trinkets than she was planning to collect which she is going to sell later and enough money to pay for her food for a month if the price was the same than before invasion.  _

_ She has no idea of how many bodies she carried or found. She is forever grateful for sealing scrolls.) _   
  
She still is numb when she hears about the Massacre of Sarutobi Clan. Just some jounin and a kid or three survived. Hum, that snake person must feel really necessary enact their vengeance or whatever. In moments like this, Tenten feels happy for being an orphan. What if someone killed her because some clan member pissed then? Bad business. Neji looks strangely at her when she said it, like she said the most unexpected thing she could’ve and Lee said to her to not talk like it. No matter, it’s the truth. Gai-sensei says nothing because he is not there; last time she saw him was two days ago, because he was checking her up, before going on some high-rank mission. One of his teammates is dead, killed protecting the Third Hokage’s grandson. Tenten doesn’t think he knows it yet. Damn, Gai-sensei will be stricken. He will need emotional support and if her theory is true, she doesn’t know if he is going to have enough time to receive it.

 

_ (She has three hundreds forty-two shuriken, ninety-four kunai, two hundreds twenty-one senbon, seventy-seven meters of ninja wire, thirty explosive tags, twelve smoke bombs, a bo staff and two small hammers. She has nine pairs of shoes, two pairs to gift Gai, so many trinkets she is sealing their scrolls in other scrolls, not enough money for food for a week if the prices stay that way, and gifts to Neji, Lee, Gai, Sakura for two years. To Himeko-chan too, if she is still alive. Tenten has to check with her later. _

_ She still has no idea of how many bodies she carried or found, but the Third Hokage funeral was today. The smell of burnt flesh clings to her no matter how much she tries mask it and there is no way she is going forget it. She is forever grateful for sealing scrolls.) _ __  
  


She still is numb when she finds most of her class dead or in hospital. Himeko-chan survived, but one of her teammates is dead. Tenten doesn’t remember her name, just she had muscles to kill for and worked in a bakery. She doesn’t weep, just tilt her head and considers the scar in her friend shoulders.  _ Huum, that is no good. Her squad was made to be a honey-trap kind, after all _ .  Today she helps to burn most of Red Light district.  There was orders and if there are people screaming and running to try save whatever they could, Tenten has no idea. 

“Oh.” The red and orange she is seeing is not from sunset anymore. _ “Oh.”  _ She is alone and everything is in flames. “Certainly this is Fire Country.” She is weightless, she is floating, she is running just in her need to survive.   
  


_ (She has three hundreds sixty-seven shuriken, one hundred nine kunai, two hundreds forty-one senbon, seventy-seven meters of ninja wire, twenty explosive tags, twelve smoke bombs, a bo staff, two small hammers and a pickaxe. Tenten has  enough money to rest tomorrow, to not  _ **_burnout._ ** _ And it’s not an irony? A fire girl helping to burn bodies burning herself out? _

_ Smoke surround herself and her dreams. Lungs ablaze and no air, no help. Faceless bodies haunt her. She is eaten by a giant snake, just to be corroded by acid. She has no weapons, no seals, nothing but herself. She glows, she shines, she is resplendent, she is a star, a supernova. And it  _ **_hurts,_ ** _ there is so much  _ **_pain_ ** _ , she is screaming and her throat is raw, she is being  _ **_unmade,_ ** _ she is dying. She is beautiful, she is grace, she is lethal and is going to destroy everything around her. _

_ She awakes.) _

 

Later, she will collect more weapons. But now, her vulture mind wants to rest.

Tenten is tired. She would like to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So, my headcanon is Senju as whole, buried people if they could. If there was so much bodies or unidentifiable ones, they burned them. The Uchiha Clan, and most of Fire country, burn the bodies in funerary pyres and if the bodies are of strangers or aren't identifiable, just burn them. What you do with the ashes changes depending of your social status/traditions
> 
> Konoha, adopted both forms but the Standard form is bury the body, unless the person let it be know they desired to be burnt after they died. With the Uchiha losing status after Kyuubi attack, the funerary pyres became most a Uchiha Thing and a Civilian Thing. After Uchiha Massacre, it was a Civilian Thing. And to this day, to burn corpses with or without funerary pyres means the person wasn't important enough/didn't have someone to mourn them/ or was so low they didn't deserve to be buried. It is offensive. At least to most ninjas from Fire Country. Civilians can be excused, because they're Different.
> 
> If your Clan/family came from another country, you have different funerary rites. In my headcanon, the Haruno family was originally a samurai family rom Iron Country and after a while most of them came to Earth country. There, they became a merchant family. In Hashirama reign, a branch of Haruno family came to Konoha, but they are in most countries and Villages in present time, as well in all capitals. The influence of traditions from Earth and Iron are still strong and changes just a little bit in the various branches of the family. 
> 
> Sakura's father, however, is a fisherman son, born in Whirlpools. And Whirlpools, just like the Water Country and Wave, had traditions related to sea/water. Not everyone in Whirlpools had big reserves like the Uzumaki because not everyone was one but all of them had some varition of red/purple/orange/pink hair. While Sakura's father doesn’t remember much (he was a kid when it fell), he remembers their funerary rites because he and Uzu survivors went through them many times. To this day, they still resent the fact Kushina wasn't given a Proper Uzu Burial.  
> (Ugh, now I want write about it. Alright then.)


End file.
